LEGARDEUR DE CROISILLE, CHARLES, seigneur, officer in the colonial regular troops; b. 23 April 1677 in Boucherville (Que.), son of Jean-Baptiste Legardeur* de Repentigny and Marguerite Nicollet de Belleborne; d. 3 Dec. 1749 in Trois-Rivières.

The earliest reference to Charles Legardeur de Croisille is dated 20 Sept. 1702, when his father granted him a tract of land. On 4 Feb. 1709, in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Croisille married Marie-Anne-Geneviève, daughter of Pierre Robinau* de Bécancour, Baron de Portneuf, and Marie-Charlotte Legardeur de Villiers. By this marriage Croisille became seigneur of part of the barony of Portneuf, a substantial property on the north shore of the St Lawrence River. One month after the wedding Croisille’s father added another land grant to his son’s holdings. Croisille was involved in the fishing industry; in 1723 he was confirmed in his rights to fish off the barony of Portneuf, and he developed his interest in seal fishing. In 1729 he received another land grant – this time 80 acres of land on the Rivière L’Assomption. He sold the barony of Portneuf to Eustache Lambert Dumont the younger in 1741 for 12,000 livres.

Croisille served in the colonial regular troops, and there his advancement was slow. In 1710, at the age of 33, he was commissioned ensign, and he was not raised to a lieutenancy until 1728. In 1729, when Pierre Robinau died, Croisille considered retiring from the colonial regulars with the aim of taking over his father-in-law’s position as chief road commissioner (grand-voyer) of New France; however, Jean-Eustache Lanoullier de Boisclerc was awarded the position. On 17 May 1741 Croisille was promoted captain; the following year he was sent to Fort Saint-Frédéric (Crown Point, N.Y.) and four years later he replaced Paul Bécart de Grandville et de Fonville as post commandant. He served in this position for one year. He received the cross of Saint-Louis on 15 Feb. 1748, and the following year, on 3 December, Croisille died in Trois-Rivières.

C. J. Russ

ANQ-M, Greffe d’Antoine Adhémar, 20 sept. 1702, 17 avril 1709; Greffe de J.-C. Raimbault, 24 mai 1728. Fauteux, Les chevaliers de Saint-Louis, 144–45. Le Jeune, Dictionnaire. P.-G. Roy, Inv. concessions, I, 240–41. Tanguay, Dictionnaire. Nish, Les bourgeois-gentilshommes, 107, 119–20. P.-G. Roy, Hommes et choses du fort Saint-Frédéric, 146, 172. J.-E. Roy, “Le patronage dans l’armée,” BRH, II (1896), 117.